i had this weird mental flash earlier today that culminated in me thinking about my trip to italy in 2005 with some of my classmates. there were 40 or so of us, and we were a mix of graphic design, interior design and architecture students. we ranged in age from 19-23, the perfect age for wreaking havoc on unsuspecting resorts and cities across northern italy.
i have a hazy memory of going swimming in the fog on an early morning at lake orta, playing “never have i ever” until the wee hours of the morning and ending up at a disocteka somewhere on the shores of – presumably – lake orta, under a cliff, bottles of champagne going every which way. i also remember walking through rome at three in the morning, sober, soaking up the silence of the colosseum, spanish steps and tomb of augustus with only one other person. in florence, we celebrated birthdays, met american students, and drank bottles of cheap italian wine on the steps of san lorenzo. milan saw us running through the streets trying to get to the chapel where the last supper fresco is, and missing our allotted time by about two minutes. with the help of other guests, we were able to get our fifteen minutes in. we hiked at cinqueterre, taking the earliest train from la spezia in order to get on the trail before the majority of people.
in the way that only college students can, we seamlessly merged our extracurricular activities with studious ones: i have watercolours of san pietro, the tiber, the church in assisi, and the umbrellas in vernazza. i kept a sketchbook slash journal, filled with tidbits and quick drawings, and i took tons of pictures. sadly, my computer crashed the semester i returned home and i lost a lot of pictures. i walked the halls of the vatican, climbed to the top of san pietro, whispered in the nave of the duomo. but i also toured design studios in every city, talked with italian designers and architects, browsed design shops, toured alessi.
we had a project too: design and brand an interactive kiosk for a fictitious fashion museum. teams of six, two architects, two interior and two graphic designers, worked together to create a unique, moveable kiosk. in the end, i thought for sure i wanted to work in italy. i spoke with the designers we met, asking how difficult it would be to get an internship with them.
the next summer saw me in turkey, though, and then the summer after that i moved to scotland. i didn’t make it back to italy until last year. while walking around with r, i remembered little bits and pieces, little directional hints. when we found the tomb of augustus, though, it was surrounded by a fence and overgrown. that saddened me a little, because seeing that in the middle of the night (and again the next day) was an unreal experience. the stones that make up the courtyard surrounding the mausoleum, for example, are etched with a to-scale architectural drawing (i read this somewhere and am now unable to fact check it. working on it!).
while i am not in touch with the majority of the people that i traveled to italy with that year, we are facebook friends and when i see a post or a picture with them, i remember some of the things we did, the things we saw and the incredible month we had. i wouldn’t change it for the world.